It has also emerged that a Tesla Model 3 driver has blamed Autopilot for a crash in Greece last Friday, in which the car suddenly veered right "without warning".

The motorist, You You Xue, voiced his concerns about Autopilot on Facebook.

"The vigilance required to use the software, such as keeping both hands on the wheel and constantly monitoring the system for malfunctions or abnormal behaviour, arguably requires significantly more attention than just driving the vehicle normally," he wrote.

One influential tech industry-watcher has raised concern about Tesla's software, noting that Google's car division has claimed that an all-or-nothing approach is safer.

"There is a serious argument that the incremental, 'level 2/3' approach to autonomous cars followed by Tesla, where the human isn't driving but might have to grab the wheel at any time, is actively dangerous and a technical dead end," tweeted, a partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

'Deceptive' naming

The Center for Auto Safety and Consumer Watchdog said it should be "reasonable" for Tesla owners to believe that their car should be able to drive itself on Autopilot.

It called the naming of the Autopilot "deceptive and misleading".

Media questions

The chief executive of Tesla, Elon Musk, has previously complained abut media attention on Tesla crashes. He tweeted: "It's super messed up that a Tesla crash resulting in a broken ankle is front page news and the ~40,000 people who died in US auto accidents alone in past year get almost no coverage."

His comments received support from prominent academic and psychologist Steven Pinker, who has in the past voiced concerns about Tesla's Autopilot.